The Killers' Brandon Flowers is 'not going to burn my Smiths CDs' over Morrissey's politics

'I don’t think Marr should be held back because of Morrissey,' he said

Isobel Lewis
Tuesday 21 April 2020 11:27 BST
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The Killers perform 'This Charming Man' at Glastonbury

The Killers frontman Brandon Flowers has admitted he finds it “difficult” to separate Morrissey’s far right politics from his music with The Smiths.

A lifelong fan of the band, Flowers performed a cover of “This Charming Man” as part of The Killers’ headline set at Glastonbury Festival in 2019, with The Smiths’ guitarist Johnny Marr joining him on the Pyramid Stage for the song.

Speaking to The Sunday Times, the Las Vegas rocker admitted that while he didn’t support Morrissey’s controversial political views, he would find it hard to stop listening to the band altogether.

“I don’t think Marr should be held back because of Morrissey, so I don’t regret [covering their song],” he said.

“It is difficult to separate it from him, and I’m not going around playing the music in front of my kids, but pick a song! Pick “What She Said”. If “What She Said” came on the radio with my kids, I wouldn’t change it.”

He continued: “It’s still an amazing song, so I’m not that serious, where I would change the station. I don’t agree with him, but I’m not going to burn my CDs by The Smiths or anything.”

In recent years, Morrissey has politically aligned himself with the far right, in 2019 publicly supporting the anti-Islam party For Britain and saying that “everyone ultimately prefers their own race”.

Flowers has previously claimed that Morrissey is “still a king”, despite his history of racism.

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